1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a tape processing apparatus which performs tape processing operations inclusive of a feed operation (or a feeding operation) to feed a processing tape (i.e., a tape to be subjected to processing operations) along a tape travel passage, and an embossing operation to perform embossing on the processing tape, and which also performs indication in an indicator to show that the apparatus is in the tape processing operations. The invention also relates to an apparatus for processing a tape (also referred to as a tape processing apparatus) as well as to a program.
2. Related Art
There is known an apparatus for embossing on a tape-shaped embossing medium Braille characters (or raised letters) which embosses Braille characters readable to a visually handicapped person by his or her touch with fingers. JP-A-2003-182158 is an example related art.
In this kind of Braille-character embossing apparatus, while the tape processing operations inclusive of the tape feed operation and the embossing operation are being performed, an indication is made on a display screen or by an indicating lamp (LED, indicator, or the like) to show that the apparatus is in the course of tape processing.
However, with the indication on the display screen of “in the course of tape processing” (or “tape being processed”) alone, or simply with the indicating lamp being lighted up (switched on), the user cannot judge whether the apparatus is in the course of tape feed operation or in the course of embossing operation. Especially, when the audibly handicapped user (i.e., the person who cannot hear) uses the apparatus, the user cannot hear the embossing sound (or noise) generated at the time of embossing. Therefore, the user cannot make a judgment based on this embossing sound. There is thus a possibility that the user may manually pull out the tape even when the embossing operation is already or still going on, resulting in a damage to an embossing head. In addition, in case the processed tape has been found to have no embossing thereon, it cannot be judged as to whether the embossing control itself was not performed or whether the problem lies in the embossing mechanism which drives the embossing head. Furthermore, in case this kind of abnormality in embossing has happened, the technical supporting section of the manufacturer cannot see the cause for the problem. Therefore, even if the user tries to get help from the technical supporting section of the manufacturer, technical support will hardly be obtained.